slk23

You may want to ask her to teach you how to use the subjunctive.

@Westcoastdrums No, I don't "belive" you. But I don't know you, so I'll give you more courtesy than you gave me. I know what out of phase speakers sound like. Having one driver out of phase didn't affect things as much as one would think. Also, from what I've learned about crossovers the Klipsch designs are pretty messy wrt phase.

The difference in bass level with one woofer out of phase is surprisingly small; certainly not enough to arouse any suspicions. And why would I ever question the quality of the legendary Klipsch brand? It never entered my mind to listen with one woofer connected black to red, red to black. It was only when checking that I'd built and installed the new crossovers correctly that I tried it just to see how badly the sound would be affected. To my great surprise it made the bass stronger, leading me to dig deeper and check the connections inside the bass cabinet.

I can see that the wire connecting the positive terminal on the driver (marked with a dot of paint) goes to the backside of the black binding post. Also, when I test the driver with an AA battery the cone moves in instead of out as it should. The other woofer has the opposite (correct) behavior.

I bought a pair of La Scalas (split cabinet reinforced pro style) in 1983. Recently while working on renewing the crossovers I've discovered that one of the woofers was hooked up out of phase at the factory: inside the bass cabinet the red wire is connected to the driver's positive connection and the black binding post. I've always felt that the bass was a bit weak for 15" drivers and now I know why! The speakers still have the signed quality control tags on them. Apparently their process didn't include checking the wiring. Nice job...

Thanks for the explanation.

Can anyone explain why the AL crossover in my La Scala speakers reverse the polarity of the squawker and tweeter? The AA, which I believe was also used in the La Scala, doesn't change polarity. Is it because of a phase shift in the AL that isn't present in the AA? AL: AA:

I have a pair of 1985 La Scala's (industrial style) with AL crossovers (no zener diodes) that I suspect could use a refresh. Are there more reports on the "wdecho mod"? Would that mod work well for high volume listening? Also, while I don't mind adding the zeners I wonder how important they are; my speakers were driven at max. levels with a Hafler 250 watt/channel amp for hours at a time back in the '80s. I blew a few fuses on the speakers but never lost a tweeter. TIA.